John Noble

A stage veteran in his native Australia, actor John Noble had been performing for over two decades before earning his star-making turn as the emotionally corrupt Lord Denethor in "The Lord of the Ring...
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2014 was a great year for fans of pop culture and books. We learned the stories behind the making of a classic, had a young girl tell us what she's "learned," and even learned the secrets of modeling that Tyra could never have taught us. We've rounded up the best of these just in case you're looking for a last minute gift or the next pick for your book club.
1. "Yes Please" - Amy Poehler
Getty Images/Sonia Recchia
For: A fledgling feminist in her twenties who could use a good laugh and some sound advice from a Smart Girl, or anyone who needs to hear that it's okay to feel the way they're feeling.
Memorable Quote: "Because what else are we going to do? Say no? Say no to an opportunity that may be slightly out of our comfort zone? Quiet our voice because we are worried it's not perfect? I believe great people do things before they are ready."
(Bonus quote: "I have the Angelina Jolie of vaginas.")
2. "Not My Father's Son" - Alan Cumming
Getty Images/Brad Barket
For: Fans of Who Do You Think You Are? or anyone trying to overcome their childhood dramas and are seeking inspiration.
Memorable Quote: "For yes, being a woman, even one with a penis and for the purposes of drama really made me feel that women have been coerced into a way of presenting themselves that is basically a form of bondage. Their shoes, their skirts, even their nails seem designed to stop them from being able to escape whilst at the same time drawing attention to their sexual and secondary sexual characteristics. And I think that has happened so that men feel they can ogle them and protect them in equal measure."
3. "The Woman I Wanted To Be" - Diane von Furstenberg
Getty Images/Valeria Macon
For: The fashionista who knows what she wants, or the woman in your life who wants to 'have it all.'
Memorable Quote: "In my older face, I see my life. Every wrinkle, every smile line, every age spot. There is a saying that with age, you look outside what you are inside. If you are someone who never smiles your face gets saggy. If you're a person who smiles a lot, you will have more smile lines. Your wrinkles reflect the roads you have taken; they form the map of your life. My face reflects the wind and sun and rain and dust from the trips I've taken. My face carries all my memories. Why should I erase them?"
4. "So, Anyway" - John Cleese
Getty Images/Slaven Vlasic
For: The Monty Python fan seeking a crash course in what makes comedy funny and what makes a comedian successful.
Memorable Quote: "So, creatively, I was doubly blessed: constant relocation and parental disharmony. Add to these two gifts the well-established fact that many of the world's greatest geniuses, both artistic and scientific, have been the product of serious maternal deprivation, and I am forced to the conclusion that if only my mother had been just a little more emotionally inadequate, I could have been HUGE."
5. "Uganda Be Kidding Me" - Chelsea Handler
Getty Images/D Dipasupil
For: Chelsea Handler fans suffering withdrawals during this period between her E! show and her upcoming Netflix gig.
Memorable Quote: "There's a difference between being a class act and being classy. Peeing off the side of a Jeep doesn't mean you're not classy, it just means you're a free spirit with a small bladder."
6. "The Andy Cohen Diaries: A Deep Look at a Shallow Year" - Andy Cohen
Getty Images/Nomi Ellenson
For: Any pop culture junkie who wants all the dirt on their favorite celebrities; any Real Housewives fans itching to know which lady is causing the most trouble.
Memorable Quote: "I literally almost called this book Diary of a Name-Dropper. So if you want to play a drinking game while reading this book—and that's not a great idea and only gonna last for so long—take a swing every time you read a name you recognize."
7. "Not That Kind of Girl: A Young Woman Tells You What She's 'Learned'" - Lena Dunham
Splash News
For: Any guy or Girl who's almost getting it kind of together; anyone whose own thoughts have sometimes been too much for them.
Memorable Quote: "When someone shows you how little you mean to them and you keep coming back for more, before you know it you start to mean less to yourself. You are not made up of compartments! You are one whole person! What gets said to you gets said to all of you, ditto what gets done. Being treated like shit is not an amusing game or a transgressive intellectual experiment. It's something you accept, condone, and learn to believe you deserve. This is so simple. But I tried so hard to make it complicated."
8. "Dancing With Myself" - Billy Idol
Getty Images/Paul Archuleta
For: The wannabe groupie; anyone interested in the not-to-be-believed antics and lifestyles of glam rockers.
Memorable Quote: "After a while, my nose became so bloody that I reverted to smoking cocaine instead. From there, it was all downhill."
9. "Let's Just Say It Wasn't Pretty" - Diane Keaton
Splash News
For: Anyone who has ever felt or been told they were ugly or imperfect; anyone who sees themselves aging before a mirror and sighs.
Memorable Quote: "After living with Mr. Lincoln's portrait for several years, I've come to this conclusion: his beauty, like the hidden cast of his right eye, became identifiable only after I included "unsightly" as a possible way of describing a beautiful face."
10. "Carsick: John Waters Hitchhikes Across America" - John Waters
Getty Images/Rob Kim
For: Your eccentric friend with incurable wanderlust; anyone who wants to see America from a very different pair of eyes.
Memorable Quote: "I'm alive, I think, and so many of my friends are not. I may be nuts to be doing this, but I'm kind of proud of myself. I am having an adventure. I like my life. Even if I have to stand here for the rest of it."
11. "Neil Patrick Harris: Choose Your Own Autobiography" - Neil Patrick Harris
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For: The person living a life that seems unworthy of a book and wants to live vicariously through Doogie Howser, M.D.; fans of choose-your-own-adventure books, biographies, and How I Met Your Mother.
Memorable Quote: "If you had known people would be calling you by your character name for the next twenty years, you might have asked for a different one. Thunderbolt Howser, say, or Dr. Feelgood, or Baron von Sexy Ass."

Singers Bono and Robin Thicke have been named two of the Least Influential People of 2014 by America's GQ magazine. Editors at the U.S publication have compiled a list of the 30 stars they believe are uninspiring to the general public, noting that this batch of people "took up vast clouds of oxygen, gave us back nothing of use, and probably helped accelerate the death of our planet."
Rocker Bono and his band U2 were criticised in September (14) for releasing their Songs of Innocence album exclusively through iTunes - the record was installed into nearly 500 million users' music libraries automatically.
GQ editors slammed the band for using the stunt as "some kind of noble gift to The People", and added, "This was a $100 million marketing campaign. Yes, $100 million to turn U2's socially conscious dad-rock into a piece of direct mail."
R&B singer Thicke had a rough 2014 after his actress wife Paula Patton filed for divorce - he staged a failed attempt at winning her back by dedicating his latest album, titled Paula, to her.
The publication's editors wrote, "The rest of this cheeseball's career is our collective punishment for making Blurred Lines popular. Let's ALL get a divorce from this man."
Other celebrities making the shameful list are actors Shia LaBeouf, Johnny Depp, Zach Braff and director Woody Allen.
Now-retired baseball pro Derek Jeter, basketball star Dwayne Wade and the whole Brazilian soccer team are among the athletes on the list, while politicians such as U.S. President Barack Obama and his former presidential opponent Senator John McCain also made the cut.

Nickelodeon
Assuming you were born around 1983 and that your social circle in the early grammar school years consisted of a rigidly impermeable foursome, we can conclude indisputably that you spent a good deal of your time playing Ninja Turtles. Unlike other pop culture-inspired imagination games, Ninja Turtles never allowed for turn taking as far as the central roles were concerned. Maybe you’d alternate occupancy of Luke, Han, and Chewy when playing Star Wars, or switch off between Margaret and Jimmy for games of Liquid Sky. But when it came to Ninja Turtles, the margins were set before recess even began: you were either the leader, the tough one, the smart one, or the goofball. Without exception.
But are such stark roles present in any other pop culture phenomena? We’d have to imagine so. As such, we sought to our favorite foursomes from the entertainment world and took a stab at assigning them their respective Ninja Turtles.
SEINFELD
LeonardoJerry, the leader (who, incidentally, derives all of his moral fiber from the noble Superman)
RaphaelGeorge, the truly "dark and disturbed" member of the group
DonatelloElaine, the intellectual — she did graduate from Tufts (her safety school), and she scored a 151 on an I.Q. test
MichelangeloKramer, the hipster dufus
THE HOGWARTS HOUSES
LeonardoGryffindor, house of the daring and noble
RaphaelSlytherin, house of the severe and ambitious
DonatelloRavenclaw, house of the wry and intellectual
MichelangeloHufflepuff, house of the spirited and kind
SEX AND THE CITY
LeonardoCarrie, the glue, the narrator and the center of everyone's attention
RaphaelMiranda, stubborn and cynical enough to walk away from the love of her life (twice!)
DonatelloCharlotte, the conservative, overachieving Ivy League grad obsessed with everything appearing perfect
MichelangeloSamantha, who has never passed up a chance to see and be seen
United Artist via Everett Collection
THE BEATLES
LeonardoPaul: "Think globally, act locally."
RaphaelJohn: "Everybody loves you when you're six foot in the ground."
DonatelloGeorge: "When you've seen beyond yourself, then you may find, peace of mind is waiting there."
MichelangeloRingo: "Peace and love. Peace and love."
THE AVENGERS
LeonardoCaptain America, the wholesome, morally didactic good guy
RaphaelThe Hulk, the "muscle" who is tortured by his own demons
DonatelloIron Man, the tech genius who never hesitates to let his teammates know how much smarter he is than they are
MichelangeloThor, who's just kind of an idiot
DAWSON'S CREEK
LeonardoDawson, proving that having your name in the title doesn't save you from being the biggest buzzkill
RaphaelPacey, the rebellious, wise-cracking screw up of your teenage dreams
DonatelloJoey, smart - she went to Worthington! - sweet, and innocent, and always likely to end up in a bad situation
MichelangeloJen, the reformed party girl with a heart of gold and a chip on her shoulder
LITTLE WOMEN
LeonardoMeg, the oldest sister and de facto head of the household
RaphaelJo, strong-willed and at odds with her siblings (and herself)
DonatelloBeth, who is shy, wise, and musically adept
MichelangeloAmy, the li'l one with the penchant for art
Columbia Pictures via Everett Collection
THE GHOSTBUSTERS
LeonardoRay, the heart and soul of the group
RaphaelPeter Venkman, the rebel who plays by his own rules (and forces everyone else to accommodate)
DonatelloEgon Spengler, the smartest in a team of scientists
MichelangeloWinston, who is also there
THE MT. RUSHMORE PRESIDENTS
LeonardoGeorge Washington, the diplomat who kicked off American democracy
RaphaelAbraham Lincoln, the agonizingly depressed hero who took to the front lines
DonatelloThomas Jefferson, the braniac wordsmith who wrote the Declaration of Independence
MichelangeloTheodore Roosevelt, the loon who used to fight bears and whatnot
GOLDEN GIRLS
LeonardoBlanche, the open-minded, creative sort
RaphaelSophia, a master of caustic wit
DonatelloDorothy, the smartest of the lot
MichelangeloRose, the ditz
THE FACTS OF LIFE
LeonardoBlair, who was rich and blond, so she was the natural choice for the central role in an '80s sitcom
RaphaelJo, who wears a leather jacket
DonatelloNatalie, who basically acts like she's 40 at age 15
MichelangeloTootie, who wears rollerskates all the time
20th Century Fox Film via Everett Collection
THE FANTASTIC FOUR
LeonardoSue Storm, the levelheaded voice of reason
RaphaelThe Thing, who is, as one might expect, pretty pissed about being a giant rock
DonatelloMr. Fantastic, the hyper-intellectual
MichelangeloJohnny Storm, the jag who's always jumping around and lighting stuff on fire, because he thinks it's cool
STAND BY ME
LeonardoGordie, the courageous leader
RaphaelChris, the young punk who has stolen his share of milk money
DonatelloVern, the timid perpetual bullying victim
MichelangeloTeddy, the kooky thrill-seeker
GIRLS
LeonardoHannah, who at the very least sees herself as a well-adjusted leader of mankind
RaphaelJessa, the alleged loose cannon who is riddled with dark passengers
DonatelloMarnie, the uptight would-be sophisticate who tries to manufacture life experience by the book
MichelangeloShoshanna, the young nutter butter who garners the least respect
ROCKET POWER
LeonardoReggie Rocket, the smart, even-tempered overachiever
RaphaelOtto Rocket, the troublesome bad boy
DonatelloSam Dullard, the awkward intellectual
MichelangeloTwister Rodriguez, the idiot comic relief
Paramount Pictures via Everett Collection
MEAN GIRLS
LeonardoCady Heron, the acceptable human being
RaphaelRegina George, the villainous upstart
DonatelloGretchen Wieners, kind of just by default
MichelangeloKaren Smith... see "Thor"
THE SWEATHOGS
LeonardoVinnie Barbarino, the boring (albeit charming) leader
RaphaelJuan Epstein, the tough guy with whom everybody knows not to mess
DonatelloArnold Horshach, the dorky dweeb
MichelangeloBoom Boom Washington, the loudmouthed goofball
A special thanks to writers Angie Han (an easygoing Michelangelo type) and Rudie Obias (a total Raphael, with respect) for helping to mastermind this piece, and to everyone else who contributed their varied expertise to the cause.
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FOX Broadcasting Co.
After one fist-clencher of a finale, the recent Sleepy Hollow casting news is pretty darn interesting. What to make of the fact that John Noble and Lyndie Greenwood are now series regulars? Warning: spoilers for the first season abound below.
Now that Abbie's sister Jenny Mills seems to be a permanent part of the show's Scooby gang, Greenwood's new slot is less surprising. The growing closeness of the sisters seemed to spell certain doom for Jenny, so we're just thrilled she made it out of the season finale alive. And, unless the show's creators are trying to fake us out and destroy us emotionally, she'll also survive the Season 2 premiere and the resolution of that merciless cliffhanger. Looks like the other Miss Mills will be around to assist Abbie and Ichabod in their defense against the dark forces of Sleepy Hollow for quite a while.
What's really interesting/disturbing is the permanent placement of John Noble. His character — the man we knew as Henry Parrish — was revealed in the two-part finale to be not only Katrina and Ichabod's son Jeremy, but also the Second Horseman. (A must-add to our list of scariest Sleepy monsters.) And once he made his Bond-villain-style confession, Jeremy buried his father alive and trapped Abbie in a giant, creepy dollhouse. We don't know how our heroes will make it out of their respective prisons, but we now know that Jeremy won't be completely vanquished anytime soon. Then again, we're talking about Sleepy Hollow here, so let's not rule out body-switching or talking corpses or any other method of keeping Noble around while still getting rid of the bad guy.
What do you think this casting means for the second season of Sleepy? Leave your predictions in the comments.
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The Hollywood mogul who launched The Mummy movie franchise has died. James Jacks passed away on Monday (29Jan14) after suffering a heart attack at his Los Angeles home. He was 66.
The veteran producer was best known for bringing The Mummy blockbusters to cinemas, and his other credits include spin-off The Scorpion King, as well as Dazed and Confused, The Jackal, cult comedy Mallrats, and 2012 epic John Carter.
His longtime producing partner Sean Daniel says in a statement, "Nobody loved movies more. Passionate, loyal, generous, accomplished, noble, caring, heavily armed, creative, dare I say obsessive on occasion. A good man, a good friend, a wonderful partner, a loving son to his family."

George Clooney and Matt Damon have a certain ease with each other that makes any film project they're in look like fun rather than work. Hell, the duo made three Ocean's movies as the world's most elaborate excuse for a vacation with all your acting friends. So, in a world where Ocean's 14 thankfully doesn't exist, we have The Monuments Men, which acts as if someone put a mini-Ocean's 11 reunion in a time machine and sent it back to World War II. (Brad Pitt was accidentally sent to a 19th century slavery plantation. Bad luck Brad.)
Based on a true story, The Monuments Men follows a rag tag group of would-be soldiers are tasked with infiltrating a warring Germany and rescuing pieces of art stolen by the Nazi war machine, and returning them to their original owners, but stealing back stolen art won't be easy for this group of museum curators and historians since the Nazis are ordered to destroy the art should the Third Reich fall, and spoiler alert, it does.
With a cast that sweeps up as many aging stalwarts of Hollywood as it can, The Monuments Men takes the form of a more prestigious version of The Expendables, replacing Sly Stallone and his muscular cohorts for dramatic actors with a higher pedigree. Clooney and company won't be doing anything as visceral as trying to sink a knife into Jean-Claude Van Damme, but trying to save endangered cultural artifacts from German flame throwers is probably more noble task.
Columbia Pictures
This newest trailer makes the film feel decidedly more like a jaunty caper than a war film, with a bunch of old men doddering around the dark corners of Hitler's Germany and stealing art right under the noses of a couple of snarling Nazis. Rather than being a sobering film about war, it actually looks like a load of fun, or about as fun as a movie involving World War II can look.
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Seth Meyers announced his new Weekend Update co-host this week, and we're feeling pretty good about this choice. Cecily Strong joined the Saturday Night Live cast just last year, and this high-profile gig surely came her way because of the huge impact she's made in her short tenure on the show. She excels at creating memorable characters; the common element in most of the successful recurring sketches that were established in the '12-'13 season was Cecily. She's already visited the Update desk as several characters; and no matter who she's playing, she and Seth have great comic chemistry.
Let's look back at Cecily's greatest hits from Season 38 and know that our fake news fate is in good hands.
The Girlfriends Talk Show
Cecily taps into our childhood insecurities with this one. She plays peppy Kyra, who hosts a teen talk show with her less-cool best friend Morgan (Aidy Bryant). She and her new, "awesome" girlfriend (Jennifer Lawrence and Anne Hathaway, so far) continually undermine poor Morgan until she's practically seething. Remember high school? That was fun.
"We're not porn stars anymore!"
The former-porn-stars-do-a-commercial sketch never fails, mostly because Strong and Vanessa Bayer have perfectly the ladies' signature garbled delivery ("Aff-lence. lux-ry. Mo-ey Chamben.") and blank-eyed stares. It's also an opportunity for the writers to trot out their best one-liners ("One time I did a weird shoot in Mexico. Two of the girls died, but I'm alive. Thanks, champagne!") and for hosts like Justin Timberlake and Ben Affleck to put on some short-shorts and tap into their Boogie Nights fantasies.
Dana and Niff
Dana (Strong) and Niff (Bobby Moynihan) are sure that they're getting fired (from McDonald's or Barnes and Noble, depending on the episode), so they take that opportunity to air their personal greivances with all their co-workers. ("I know you copied those Mad Libs, Beverly. Ain't nobody that funny.") It kills, because the two deliver every insult with panache and committment and because we all, especially on our worst days, daydream about doing the same.
The Girl You Wish You Hadn't Started a Conversation With at a Party
The one and only downside to having Cecily as a Weekend Update co-host is that we will likely say goodbye to her most popular character, who cares too much about humankind's greatest problems to even find out what they are. Who will remind Seth to "learn a book" or ask the tough questions like, "What are we even doing? And like, don't"? Our world will be a much poorer, less socially-conscious place, but it's the price we'll have to pay.
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Chris Nashawaty
Who's the one person who connects such different Hollywood artists as Martin Scorsese, Francis Ford Coppola, James Cameron, Ron Howard, and Jack Nicholson? The man, the legend, Roger Corman. In his new book Crab Monsters, Teenage Cavemen, and Candy Stripe Nurses, Chris Nashawaty presents on oral history of Corman's career told by the B-movie maestro himself and also by the many marquee names who got their start in the business working on his fast-pace, low-budget productions. But it's also something more. It includes in-depth aesthetic appreciations of ten of Corman's movies, which, taken together, make a compelling case for Corman as an artist. Nashawaty's book, available now from Amazon and Barnes &amp; Noble, started as an article in 2009 for Entertainment Weekly, where he's a film critic. (Full Disclosure: Nashawaty was a colleague of mine when I worked at EW.) That article was pegged to Corman receiving a lifetime achievement Academy Award. "I'd interviewed him various times over the years, and he's always been a good interview," Nashawaty says. "He knows how to tell a story, and he's always got a quote handy. But with this book project I got to sit down with him in person and spend some real time with him and ask him about the whole course of his career." Nashawaty tells us how Corman helped create modern Hollywood.
Hollywood.com: How did you first discover Roger Corman and become a fan? Chris Nashawaty: Well, look, when you tell people that you’re a film critic they expect for you to say you grew up on classy movies and Oscar-winning movies, and the fact is I grew up watching monster movies and Piranha and all sorts of other movies that your parents don’t want you to watch. Roger Corman was a name I just kept recognizing in the credits and it wasn’t until I started working at Entertainment Weekly that I started to dig a little deeper and realized that there are 400 of these movies that he’s attached to. When you discover a great director like Stanley Kubrick and you say “I’m going to watch every Stanley Kubrick movie!” that’s only going to take you 10 movies and then you’re done, but Corman is the gift that keeps on giving.
HW: You really dive in deep to give an aesthetic appreciation of his movies, which is unique because often the artistic value of his movies is ignored. He’s thought of more as a mogul or a producer. Do you think he’s generally neglected as an artist? CN:He’s very much overlooked as a director. I think people focus too much on his drive-in movies or exploitation movies — or only focus on the people he mentored — and don’t think about him as a film stylist. And he made some really good movies. Sure, he started off making some disposable, quickie, cheap drive-in movies about atomic monsters, and those are fine. Some of them are even very good. But it wasn’t until the ‘60s that he began to find his voice and develop a style, particularly in his Edgar Allen Poe adaptations. He directed most of them beginning with House of Usher in 1960 and they’re very atmospheric, much like the films Hammer was making in England at the time. They’re Gothic horror movies, they’re moody and colorful, in large part because he assembled an incredible crew. Nicolas Roeg is the DP on The Tomb of Ligeia. So to break up the oral history of his life with all the racy stories, I picked two of his movies per decade and wrote an essay about each. They’re movies that speak to me personally, like Masque of the Red Death, Attack of the Crab Monsters, and Boxcar Bertha.
He also made this movie in 1962 called The Intruder starring William Shatner that was way ahead of its time. It was about segregation in the South. It was a very personal film for Corman and really well made too. Shatner plays a rabble-rousing racist who goes to a Southern town and whips the locals into a frenzy about integration in the schools. It’s a very progressive film about a hot topic that the Hollywood studios wouldn’t even have touched until another five years with In the Heat of the Night and Guess Who’s Coming to Dinner, and even then not very forcefully. But this is a movie that’s very explosive. Ironically, it’s his most personal film and the only one he lost money on in his career.
HW: Do you have a particular favorite of his movies? CN: It's probably a tie. There's Masque of the Red Death, which is my favorite of his Poe movies. It’s just so twisted and gorgeous, it’s like a Bergman film made into an exploitation horror movie. It’s great. And the other one is probably the first Corman movie I ever saw, which is Piranha. I remember seeing that in the theater when I was really young, I don’t know how or why my parents thought it was a good idea to take me to see a movie called Piranha. But they did, God bless them, and that movie has just always stuck with me. It was Joe Dante’s first movie, and it had a script by John Sayles. It’s a great Jaws ripoff about killer fish turning people into mincemeat.
HW: That seems to be a very sore point for him, that he lost money on The Intruder in particular. CN: Yeah, he mortgaged his house to make that movie. It was that personal to him. And the fact that it wasn’t a success really stung him, deeply. If it had been a success, it’s interesting to think what kind of films he might have made afterward. But it taught him a lesson that maybe this whole personal filmmaking thing wasn’t necessarily something that was going to work for him. Which isn’t to say that his subsequent movies aren’t personal — they are — but he never tried to say something in the same way that he did in that movie again.
HW: You make the argument that he was always ahead of the curve — certainly on race relations as in The Intruder — but also when it came to recognizing the burgeoning youth market. CN: You know the teenager is a very ‘50s concept. The whole idea of young kids being able to spend money and go to the drive-ins, that was something that didn’t exist until the ‘50s and I don’t think Hollywood really recognized them as a real lucrative market. But Corman did. Some of the safer movies that were being aimed at teens at the time, the Beach Party/Beach Blanket Bingo movies, they were fun and campy but they weren’t movies that teenagers necessarily wanted to see…they weren’t about rebellion really. But Corman recognized there was a whole demographic that was being ignored. He saw that, pounced on it, and made biker movies like The Wild Angels and just movies that were showing what was going on in society before anyone else was.
HW: Now, fifty years later, so much of Hollywood filmmaking as a whole is geared toward teenagers. People often credit Jaws and Star Wars for creating youth-oriented blockbuster culture, but do you think Corman deserves his share of recognition for helping create modern Hollywood? CN: I do, yeah, in a lot of ways. And not just that one. There are several different moments where he recognized what was going on faster than the slower-on-the-uptake studios did. One of them was noticing there was an underserved teen market for movies. Another was much later in the ‘80s, when the country was being overrun by videostores, the VHS market was not one the studios exploited right away. It was Corman, who’d been sort of squeezed out of making movies who rejuvenated his business by recognizing there was this VHS market. He made these straight-to-video movies because he knew mom-and-pop video shops were hungry for product. So he’d make straight-to-video movies and put the most lurid, garish, sexy cover he could put on them, with the movie being almost an afterthought, and they’d sell like hotcakes.
Chris Nashawaty
HW: Looking at all the great Corman posters from the ‘50s, ‘60s, ‘70s, and ‘80s featured in your book, it hits home how much the art of movie posters seems to have been lost. CN: I agree. He didn’t have budgets and he didn’t have stars so all he really had to sell a movie was a great poster. In a way it was the purest form of advertising you can imagine: you make a great poster and you slap an incredible tagline on it. My favorite is for Angels Hard As They Come, from 1971, and it’s a biker movie starring Scott Glenn and Gary Busey. The tagline is “Big men with throbbing machines and the girls who take them on.” I mean, that’s a great come on. It’s total Barnum &amp; Bailey “Sell! Sell! Sell!” He was just a master at making posters and trailers that were in a way better than the movies themselves.
HW: Sometimes the alumni of Corman University speak about him with some snark, but generally there seems to be real affection there. Why do you think that is? CN: Once these people went on to have legitimate careers they looked back on their films for Corman as their salad days. It was a great time — they were young, they weren’t getting paid a lot of money, but they got to make a movie. I think we forget how hard, and how rare, that is. You had to work your way up the ladder and studios were closed shops to a lot of people. Corman took the best and brightest out of the film schools and said, “Hey, I’m going to exploit you, I’m going to pay you nothing, I’m going to work you to the bone, but I’m going to give you the shot to make a movie.” And I think a lot of those people who went on to work for big studios realized that they didn’t know how good they had it when they were making movies for Roger Corman because he didn’t give them endless notes or micromanage what they were doing.
HW: You also argue that Corman is the single greatest connecting thread between Old Hollywood and New Hollywood. CN: I can’t think of anyone else who has had the same sort of longevity and is as much of a throughline of the past 60 years of Hollywood. Corman may not be a household name, but he is probably the least known, most influential figure in the last half century of Hollywood. And he’s still making movies today for Syfy. Nobody else has had the reach or impact that he’s had. Just look at the famous people who got their starts in his films, everyone from Jack Nicholson to Scorsese to James Cameron to Coppola, if you take all of those people out of the history of Hollywood, if Corman had not given them their break, the movie industry as we know it today would not exist.
Chris Nashawaty
HW: And he created an independent model of film production that anticipated the independent film revolution by decades. CN: Corman was really the only one I can think of, maybe more recently Miramax, who gave the major studios a run for their money. Because there had been poverty row independent studios since the start of Hollywood, but they could come and go. Between the first company he worked for, American International Pictures, and then his own company New World Pictures, he streamlined and refined what independent filmmaking could be. And I don’t think he gets enough credit for that.
HW: Do you think it would be possible for there to be a Roger Corman today? CN: I don’t think it’s possible for there to be a Roger Corman today because, in a way, anybody can make a movie now. And a lot of people who shouldn’t be making movies are now, because it’s so easy. You can make a movie with your iPhone. But Corman is a singular example of someone who had the genius to make movies that looked like real movies and have them make money. I don’t think you can make the quantity and the quality of movies that he made today.
HW: Do you think Corman will like your book? CN: I think so, because all of the people I interviewed offer up their love letters to him in a way, even though he comes in for some gentle ribbing about how cheap he was. I think he’s treated fairly, though, and his career is celebrated. My favorite quote in the whole book is in the introduction, and it’s from Ron Howard when he was making his first movie as a director, for Corman, called Grand Theft Auto. Corman was very tight on the budget with him, and Ron Howard needed some more extras for which Corman wouldn’t pony up any more money. So Ron Howard was despondent, but Corman walked up to him and said, “Ron, know this. If you do a good job for me on this picture, you’ll never have to work for me again.” Sure, Howard’s recollection of that pokes fun at him a bit, but the underlying message was “I’m giving you a shot and if you do a good job you’ll be able to graduate beyond me.” It was up to you to make something of yourself, to show what you’ve got.
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Benedict Cumberbatch recently told the paparazzi to turn their attention to Egypt rather than himself. His message seems a bit self-serving; he's using his desire for privacy to show the world how modest and globally aware he is. It also seems paternalistic for an actor to tell people in his industry what to pay attention to, as if they had sat down before they began their work day, wondered whether Cumberbatch or Egypt was more important, and idiotically decided on Cumberbatch. Anyway, Cumberbatch joins a group of celebrities who are constantly stressing their unimportance. Here are five of the humble few.
1. Jennifer Lawrence has often said that acting is an unimportant career, and she's called herself "vastly uneducated" “Everybody’s like, ‘How can you remain with a level head?’ And I’m like, ‘Why would I ever get cocky? I’m not saving anybody’s life. There are doctors who save lives and firemen who run into burning buildings. I’m making movies. It’s stupid.’”
2. Rob Pattinson thinks that his heartthrob status is more due to luck than any inherant attractiveness "I have been lucky, of course. Like, last year, if I went out, I'd have to fight to chat someone up. This year, I look exactly the same, which is really scruffy, and yet lots of people seem to have just changed their minds and decided I'm really sexy."
3. Keanu Reeves is so modest that he's a bit of a downer "I'm sorry my existence is not very noble, sublime, or even beneficial."
4. Kristen Stewart never seems to love the spotlight, and agrees with JLaw that there are more important jobs out there "A lot of actors think that what we do is so important, like we're saving people's lives or something."
5. Robert Downey, Jr. does not consider himself an artist "I know very little about acting. I'm just an incredibly gifted faker."
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On the surface, framing the tumultuous civil rights era around the personal drama of a black butler working inside the White House might seem hokey. Folding history lessons in an entertaining package has always proven a difficult balancing act. But Lee Daniels' The Butler stands as a testament to reserved directing, a focused script and strong character-acting for the sake of the larger picture outside the movie house.
The heart and soul of the piece resides firmly in the capable hands of Forest Whitaker who, as titular character Cecil Gaines, balances pathos, pride, and strength with a human dash of regret. The other characters all seem to pass through his life but leave bold marks on him and the film's drama. Oprah Winfrey as Ms. Gloria Gaines, Terrence Howard as the sleazy philandering neighbor who takes advantage of the lonely Gloria, and Cuba Gooding Jr. and Lenny Kravitz as fellow White House help stand out the strongest for their raw abilities to inhabit their roles.
Though you would expect such actors to hold their own, the real delight of the Butler comes from the fact that there are no shortcomings in the film's supporting roles. The dynamic between the brothers of Cecil and Gloria offers a delightful comic relief, which is peppered amongst the drama just enough to keep the struggles of those times bearable. Elijah Kelley delights as the younger, naïve, parent-pleasing Charlie, and David Oyelowo embodies ultra-righteousness as Louis, jumping at every opportunity of civil disobedience to fight for his people's human rights (from protesting Jim Crow laws in the South to joining the Black Panther party). Meanwhile, the presidents — despite being played by high profile actors like Robin Williams (Eisenhower), John Cusack (Nixon), Liev Schreiber (LBJ), Alan Rickman (Reagan), and an unforgettable Jane Fonda as Nancy — never hang around the drama long enough to distract from its main concern of a black man struggling with apathy as the times change around him.
No character ever overshadows Cecil, who encapsulates an array of issues, from escaping an oppressive life on a cotton farm as a child to arriving at a revelation stemming from a simple gesture by taking a seat at a fancy dinner in his twilight years. It's this quiet struggle of a man trying to get by in a rough and tumble world that remains the film's main concern. The 52-year-old Whitaker does a noble job as he ages from a young man to a 90-year-old.
Compared to Daniels' powerful breakout Precious (2009) and the horrible, dull mess of the Paperboy (2012), the film features a reserved sensibility thanks to the director's decision to turn down the histrionics for a change. Throughout his short filmmaking career, Daniels has always shown a keen control over camera placement to keep a film visually dynamic, despite some dramatic failings. The Butler is no exception, as Daniels' artistry appears in the film's first frame. He still, however, leans on slow motion during a few scenes for overkill emphasis. He doesn't need that. His greatest accomplishment in The Butler lies in how he keeps the other characters in check against the quiet but important struggles of Cecil. Despite the film's many stars, no one is distracted as Daniels reveals a strong sense of mise-en-scène when burying the cast's celebrity. Daniels also continues to do raw well with make-up and wardrobe dialed down to keep it real and earthy.
The script deserves singling out as the glue that makes The Butler work as neatly as it does. Written by Danny Strong, the scribe behind another brisk political drama, the acclaimed McCain-Palin exposé Game Change on HBO, it makes for an engaging, well-paced affair despite running over two hours long. Strong based his script on a Washington Post article about a black man who served as a butler to eight presidents between the '50s and '80s. In order to emphasize the history and the tension of the civil rights movement on this family who happened to have close ties to the White House, Strong took liberties with the story. He created composite characters based on other memoirs with intimate access to the White House. It's a matter of convenience to place some of these characters at three or four too many important historical moments that may seem contrived to some. However, I'd forgive the film for teetering close to Forrest Gump cartoonery for the sake of its emphasis on moments in history that can too easily be forgotten as generations pass.
After the Supreme Court's recent decision to strike down Section 4 of the Voting Rights Act, The Butler serves as an important role in reminding us that equality and malaise between ethnic groups and classes still festers in this era, even after the election of the first black president. We need a movie that looks back at history and offers a reminder about the long way America has come and the long way it still has to go. That The Butler can do it while remaining entertaining is a bonus many will appreciate.
4/5
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Appeared on the sixth season of "24" (Fox) as Russian envoy Anatoly Markov

First paid acting job with the Arts Council touring a pub show

Cast in recurring role as Dr. Helpman on the Australian series "Home and Away"

Summary

A stage veteran in his native Australia, actor John Noble had been performing for over two decades before earning his star-making turn as the emotionally corrupt Lord Denethor in "The Lord of the Rings: The Two Towers" (2002). His rich, Shakespearean turn won him worldwide favor and prime roles in films and on television, most notably "24" (Fox, 2001-2010) as a villainous Russian spy. However, his most acclaimed small screen turn was as the eccentric scientist Walter Bishop on "Fringe" (Fox, 2008- ). Produced by J.J. Abrams, the cult science fiction series was anchored by Noble's performance as a man seemingly driven mad by his experiments who then emerged from an institution after nearly 20 years to continue investigating strange phenomena. His work as Bishop made him a perennial favorite during Emmy season, as well as a much-loved character among the show's devoted fans. Having made the successful transition from Down Under to American productions, there was no doubt that for Noble the best was yet to come.

Education

For eight years Noble was a Festival Centre trustee, chairman of the inaugural Australian Drama festival in 1982 and produced four major pieces for the 1984 Festival of Arts.

Noble was involved in a drunken brawl with screen veteran Omar Sharif on Oct. 30, 2004. He was struck with a lamp by Sharif during a drink-fuelled argument at a restaurant in Jodhpur, India, where they were filming the biblical epic "One Night With The King" (2006).

Noble has produced more than 70 Australian plays and has served as artistic director of the Stage Company of South Australia for 10 years.